1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transducer element alignment structure for use with a two-dimensional transducer array to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image, and more particularly, to a transducer element alignment structure for use with a two-dimensional transducer array which can form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image by aligning a small number of elements on a circular grid.
2. Discussion of Related Prior Art
A medical ultrasonic system for displaying sectional structure and blood stream information in a human body as images is an essential piece of medical image diagnostic equipment. Ultrasonic three-dimensional image diagnostic equipment for providing three-dimensional images of medical information has recently been developed. However, to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image, a large amount of scanning time and a complicated ultrasonic system is needed. A mechanical three-dimensional scanning method which takes a very long time to obtain a signal for forming three-dimensional images is influenced by the respiratory activity of a patient. More specifically, it is difficult to obtain reliable ultrasonic signal data from a patient using the above method, since the patient cannot stop breathing for the required length of time.
To reduce the required time to perform a three-dimensional scanning, a two-dimensional transducer array can be used. However, in the case when the two-dimensional transducer array is used, the system becomes very complicated due to the required number of transducer elements. Thus, in order to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image by using a two-dimensional transducer array, a scheme for reducing the number of elements in the transducer array is inevitably needed.